Good Old Times
by Joe1619
Summary: A brand new Gears of War story, but keep in mind it doesn't revolve around any of the characters we already know. I'm using original characters and stories.
1. Chapter 1

**Good Old Times**

**Chapter One: 28****th**** RTI**

A dark cloudy day turned into night and still the battle raged. The monsters known as the Locust were unyielding killing machines. For months we Gears, the soldiers of the COG, have fought them and lost. The Twenty-Eighth Royal Tyran Infantry had lost seventy-five percent of its members in less than a year. That's double the total casualties the battalion took after fifty years of fighting in the Pendulum Wars. The Twenty-Eighth RTI's A Company had been deployed to defend the city of Klyve until the inhabitants could successfully be evacuated. The Locust besieged the city by morning, breached every defensive line by mid-day, and had taken the city by evening. Now that night has fallen the last defenders of south Klyve are battered and overrun.

"This is Lieutenant Reshawn calling everyone and anyone from Alfin and Gav. All call signs please respond. I. Repeat. All call signs please respond!" All of a sudden Joshua Narve's radio came to life with Aziz Reshawn's voice. Though Joshua was happy to hear his friend's voice, he became alarmed by Aziz's tone. You could practically feel the tension radiating over the radio. Yet Joshua was nothing if not understanding. At the situations current rate of deterioration, they were going to be at an "as good as dead" level in about thirty minutes, if they weren't there already.

Joshua quickly presses his fingers to his ear. "This is Corporal Narve. It's good to hear your voice Lieutenant. I think a Seeder was jamming us, but we must have left its field of effect."

What must have been a sigh of relief comes over the radio right before Aziz responds, "About time Narve. Where are your commanding officers?"

A cold gripped Narve that almost caused him to stumble mid-stride. He knew he would have to tell him, but that didn't make this any easier to say. Joshua knew not to sugarcoat it. Aziz needed accurate information fast. "Dead," he put it simply. The details like how and when could wait for later.

Narve could picture Aziz's face as the silence lingered longer then it should have. Joshua could appreciate the shock and awe of the situation but the living take precedent to the dead and he needed information. "I've taken command of what's left of Alfin. Listen, we need to know where you are. The wounded are slowing us down and the grubs aren't giving us time to rest."

Well, that at least got his attention. "Understood Narve. We are at the Holiday Square, but be careful. We're under attack and with such low visibility we can't tell Human from grub. Which street are you on?"

"Destech. I think we just passed Orin. If we double back and take Orin east bound, it should lead us straight to Holiday. It would be greatly appreciated if we don't get shot by any friendlies upon arrival." Narve finished sarcastically.

"Don't shoot you? We'll try. But you better come from Orin. I can't promise you won't get shot at if you come from another direction."

"Yeah, no worries. See you in five Lieutenant." Narve turned to his men. There were only seven of them left, and three practically had to be carried they were so injured. But he had to hurry them along, no matter how much they want to stop. The grubs could come up anywhere, literally. If they can't find Aziz and Belrot Platoon then he and his men are dead, plain and simple. They couldn't talk though, Joshua didn't want to risk that something might overhear them. Joshua gestured to his men to turn around and head the other way. Joshua expected his men to be frustrated or maybe even a little bit angry. But he got nothing but tired and blank expressions in return before they followed his instructions. Joshua realized that after fighting all day his men had nothing left to give and even less hope to lose.

Soon enough they arrived at Orin Street and proceeded to follow it east to Holiday Square, where they were greeted by sounds of gunfire. The square was under siege by the Locust, just as Aziz had said.

"Friendlies, coming in!" Someone yelled. The Gears of Alfin had to squeeze in-between two busses to get into the square itself. As the remnant of Alfin platoon staggered into the inner part of the square, Joshua could see it was a variable fortress. The Gears of Belrot Platoon had moved busses to block the streets and were using them as walls with Gears standing on top of them firing into the streets beyond.

Belrot's situation wasn't much better than the one Joshua had just led his men away from. Soldiers were sitting around, looking miserable. Some were trying to eat candy bars or apples, but must were just silently waiting. As they moved towards the center of the square Joshua could see closed emergence holes and he noticed that for every Gear warily watching the buss-walls, two more were warily watching the ground.

As the tired Gears neared the no longer working fountain they came across a makeshift tent with that most have been twenty wounded Gears lying inside. Corporal Amos Kahale was sitting on the ground with his back to the tent but when he noticed them he got up and walked over to Joshua. With only a nod in way of greetings Amos helped one of the one wounded and gestured for the others to follow him inside the tent. The tent had an oppressively solemn ambiance, as befitting the place and situation. As he walked down in-between the two aisles of wounded Joshua studied each face to see if he knew any of them and sadly he did.

Private Taz Gordon. He was always more of a philosopher than a soldier. But, serving as a Gear gives an aspiring politician much needed prestige, or at least that's what Taz always said. Despite that he was the worst soldier out of our entire class. Taz always had to think before he did anything and as a soldier that can get you killed. Sometimes you just have to rely on your gut instincts, something Taz never quite understood.

Joshua looked away, suddenly feeling ashamed. Was that the best thing he could remember about his friend? No longer able to stand there, watching his friend cling to life, Joshua walked over to where Amos was standing. He was standing over Private Brock Keleme, one of the three wounded Joshua had brought with him.

"How did it happen?" Amos asked, gesturing to Brock.

"When we ducked into a building to hide, some stupid rookies actually managed to get lost. Brock refused to leave them behind and went looking for them. Instead he found some grubs." Joshua shook his head at the memory. "We managed to get Brock out of there but he still took five Hammer bullets to the chest." Almost as an afterthought Joshua added, "The rookies are still MIA."

Joshua waited a couple of seconds before saying, "What about Taz?"

Amos didn't look away from Brock when he answered. "He was trying to nap when a E-hole opened up nearby. He only had enough time to unsheathe his knife before a Gnasher wielding Grenadier emerged and charged at Taz. You can tell what happened next just by looking at what's left of Taz."

They stood there in silence, thinking. Joshua, Brock, Amos, Taz, and the twins Aziz, and Cameron, have been a clique since their school days. A group of kids who excelled at history, especially that of the Pendulum Wars, and couldn't wait to become soldiers, to become Gears. When they graduated school they all went into basic training together and they graduated basic training together. They even got assigned to the same battalion and company. Aziz had always been their unofficial leader and predictably he entered Officers Training while the others joined the army. Unfortunately they entered service just months before the war ended and none of them experienced actual combat and Joshua had dejectedly thought at the time that he would never get to prove himself. But that was before E-Day. That was before everything went to hell.

Joshua saw movement out of the corner of his eye and when he looked over he saw Aziz's head sticking through the tent's flaps. With his head he gestures them to follow them even as he says, "Amos, Joshua. We need to talk."

They followed Aziz outside but the atmosphere wasn't much better than it was inside. After taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts he says in a low tone, "Good news, command has finally ordered a complete retreat from Klyve. The bad news is their trying to get everyone out at once, and the logistics of doing that is slowing them down."

Aziz listens patiently as Amos groans and Joshua asks, "Well how long do we have to wait?"

"Just ten minutes," Aziz answered before continuing, "That may not seem like long but the problem is we're already on borrowed time. The next Locust wave will destroy us. We repulsed the last one…"

"Barely" Amos muttered under his breath, but still loud enough for Joshua and probably Aziz to hear.

"…but we were reduced to our most basic weapons, Lancers and Gnashers, in the process. And even those are running low on ammo. If they attack enforce again, we could hold them off for maybe five minutes, two if they emerge inside the square, which they probably will." Aziz finished grimly.

Amos looked like he was about to say something when a voice came over the radio. "Hello? Is anybody still alive? This is Sergeant Reshawn, acting commander of Gav Platoon. Am I just talking to myself here?"

Amos, in a state of shock, says, "Cameron," More to himself than to anybody else.

Without hesitation Aziz moved his fingers up to his ear and said, "Sergeant, where have you been hiding? I've been trying to get a hold of you for hours."

There was a brief pause before Cameron's voice came back, "Hey Lieutenant. We've been hunting a Seeder for the better part of two hours, and just finished killing the ugly thing. Mind telling me where you are? And…" A very brief paused, "…And have you heard anything from Alfin? From Joshua or Brock?"

Aziz glanced at Joshua before answering, "Yeah, Alfin has already joined us. I've got Joshua right here, but Brock is in the infirmary. You can say hi to them later, we've set up shop at Holiday Square and command has sent birds to extract us. Their ETA is in just…" He paused to check his watch. "In just eight minutes. Can you get to us in time?"

"Oh, no problem. We'll be approaching from Bronze Street. It'll be a little close though. It will take seven minutes to get there."

"No problem! You better hope so because you have no room for error. We'll probably be under attack when you get here, so approach the barracked with caution."

"Understood Lieutenant. Sergeant Reshawn, out."

Joshua had already made up his mind about how he wanted to spend the next eight minutes. "Sir," Joshua addressed Aziz, gaining his attention. "Permission to guard the perimeter at Bronze Street?"

Amos immediately joined in, "Sir, permission to join Corporal Narve?"

Aziz looked between the two of them and said, "Granted, but with or without Gav make sure to get your asses to the Ravens when they get here." Aziz nodded at them and turned to address the soldiers over the radio and update them on the situation.

Joshua asked Amos to gather a few troops to help them. Initially Joshua wanted to bring his own but after remembering the state they were in when they arrived; he decided to order them instead to guard the infirmary.

One minute later Joshua, Amos, and three other Gears were running across the square to the Bronze Street barrier. But after a look at the busses and the surrounding buildings Joshua got a better idea.

Joshua stopped running, causing the others to stop, and Joshua gestures to a building saying, "Hey, instead of the busses let's go up there."

Joshua could tell from Amos's expression that he didn't like what he saw, "Ah, you sure? That looks unstable."

Well, the building did look unstable, mainly because it was just a staircase leading to what remained of the fourth story with only one wall still standing and no second or third story left.

"Granted," Joshua replied, "it may not hold us, but we won't know until we try. Besides, that will give us more cover and better visibility than the busses will."

Amos eyed the building more closely before shrugging, and within a minute they were looking out the window onto the street below.

It was a long four minute wait, the longest Joshua could remember. They needed to remain vigilant for both the Locust attack and the arrival of Gav Platoon, and the anticipation was the cause of the impossibly long four minutes.

Gunfire suddenly erupted from everywhere at once causing the Gears to turn around and see the entire perimeter under attack and several E-holes opening within the square. Joshua turned around and aimed down his sights out the window expecting to see everything and in return saw nothing. Why where the locust attacking ever other location except for this one?

A minute passes and after listening to the radio chatter they could tell that Aziz's two minute prediction was going to be right.

Finally a familiar voice comes over the radio. "This is Reshawn, we're coming up the street now. May I ask what's up with the very loud gunfire?"

"Be careful Cameron," Joshua replies. "The Locust are attacking everywhere except the Bronze Street barricade, which leads me to believe this is a…"

"…Trap," Cameron finished for him, "Yeah, that figures. We haven't exactly gone out of our way to be stealthy or hide where we are going."

"You'll have to risk it regardless. The choppers should be here very soon and no matter where you try to enter the square the Locust will stand in your way."

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up. We're coming now, please don't shoot us."

After a few seconds about ten Gears entered Joshua's line of sight. Cameron must be wearing his helmet, because all ten Gears are wearing their helmets, which pretty much makes it impossible to tell one Gear from the other, especially at this distance.

One of the Gears suddenly fires at a doorframe and the next thing Joshua knows, a hail of bullets comes from every window, doorframe, and alleyway along the wall. Four Gears drop dead within seconds and the remaining Gears start running as Locust Drones start leaving their cover to pursue a better shot of their targets.

The Gears at the windows and busses immediately open fire and try to cover the retreating Gears on the street, up until the point thirty Drones rush from their cover and return fire, forcing Joshua and the others to find cover. As he crouches underneath the windowsill Joshua hears someone complain about how they're on their last magazine and he realizes that he only has three left himself, not nearly enough if he needs to hold the barricade for more than thirty seconds.

"We made it through!" Came Cameron's voice over the radio. A wave of relief washed over Joshua as he had no way of knowing if Cameron had been one of the Gears to fall in the street. Yet the relief Joshua felt was quickly cut down by the sounds of turret fire. The first thing that went through his mind was a Grinder, the huge type of Locust that always carries a Mulcher, had breached the defenses. But that thought was short lived as he looked towards the square and saw King Raven helicopters killing all Locust within the square.

Aziz's voice came over the radio, "Okay everybody, are ride is here. Everyone, get to the evac zone in the square's center, now."

"Well," said Amos, "That's are signal to run away as fast as possible." With that Amos and the other three Gears began to descend the stairs. But Joshua took one last look and saw that the number of Locust had tripled and Joshua thinks that he has never felt so glad to be running away from a problem.

As Joshua ran down the stairs, taking it two steps at a time, he heard at least four voices say "Booooom" simultaneously and hoped to god that they weren't aiming those damned grenade launchers at him.

As it turned out they weren't, they were aiming at the unstable staircase he was running on.

The cement cracked and shook beneath him as Joshua stopped running to try and maintain balance. Then the entire staircase collapsed right beneath his feet, and as Joshua fell his mind went blank from fear and his body tensed in anticipation with his meeting with the ground. His body hit the cement that use to be the staircase and he feels pain course though him. As he lays there unable to move the only thing he can think is; that hurt more than I thought it would. As he lays there he finds he can't move and despite his best efforts to fight it the darkness takes him.

_All right, this is the first story I've published to Fanfic. I think the grammar and everything is okay, but as the author I would think that wouldn't I? Your thoughts and opinions do matter to me, especially whether you liked the story or not. The story does continue, after all, this is called chapter one, implying multiple chapters. But I do this to entertain people, and if this story is so bad that no one wants to read it, then I don't want to spend the time typing it. Personally I like the story, but once again I'm the author and I know how everything plays out (more or less). I'm feeling kind of reluctant typing this because I don't know if its frowned on or not to ask for reviews, but I really do need your impute to tell if the grammar/spelling is readable or if the story flows well. _

_Well regardless of what you think of the story or my typing skills, thank you for at least taking your time to read, and if you did, review. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Good Old Times**

**Chapter 2: Old War Buddies**

Fourteen years after the Fall of Klyve, at a bar in the Vectes Naval Base…

"…Then out of nowhere three or four fricking Boomers destroyed the staircase. Just a second later I hit the ground so hard that I blacked out." Joshua Narve finished his story enthusiastically.

"Oh, yet here you are, perfectly fine," The bartender responded sarcastically. Well, he was listening at least.

Joshua wasn't so foolish enough to believe the bartender gave a rat's ass about his story, but it was part of a bartender's job to sit and listen to customers bitch in the hopes that they will buy a few more rounds; and Joshua was more than happy to fulfill the bartender's expectations.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey Cameron, since I was unconscious because of the whole nearly killed thing, you mind finishing the story?" Joshua asked as he signaled the bartender to refill his and Cameron's cups. Over the years Joshua's found that sarcasm relieves the depression and tension better than the natural response to the everyday situation around here, which would be hopelessness and/or anger.

Joshua could tell the story had triggered some bad memories for Cameron. He always put on his brooding face when he remembered the past. Not that Joshua could blame him for it; there was nothing good to remember about the past fifteen years.

As the bartender filled their cups Joshua took a casual glance around the bar as he waited for Cameron to respond. It was about half full, with most people sitting at tables talking amongst themselves. Which is about what you would expect, the only guys who come in here at this time were those who just got off duty and needed a load taken off. The bar itself was large enough to fit a good number of Gears into it and in terms of luxury it was decent as far as bars go.

Cameron took a long sip of his drink before turning in his seat to better face Joshua.

"Sure. After Joshua was knocked unconscious me and Amos dragged him to a waiting Raven. As you can see Joshua survived, so did Brock for that matter. A luck Taz hadn't shared," Cameron finished gravely.

The bartender politely smiled and said "Well quite a finish. At least you survived." He then walked away to attend to other orders and customers.

Joshua scoffed before saying, "Wow, I did all that work painting a picture and the least you could have done is finish it gracefully, but no." Joshua let out an exaggerated sigh before finishing, "You have no storytelling ability do you?"

"More than you do at least," Cameron snapped back.

There's the non-brooding Cameron he knew, Joshua thought. Joshua decided to ignore that little comment and continue remembering, if only to keep the conversation going.

"Ha, well, Klyve was nothing compared to what happened next."

Cameron nodded as he said, "The Hammer of Dawn. The world was going to hell, so to save it we destroyed it. Ha, in a way the world did go to hell. The Hammer burned everything and filled the air with ash and sulfur."

"A depressing thought." Joshua commented. Cameron may not be in any better mood than he was when he was brooding, but he's actually talking about it out loud now. Joshua was sure that was a step in the right direction.

"It wasn't long after that the military was reorganized. No more platoons or companies, there simply weren't enough Gears left to fill the ranks," Cameron finished.

"It wasn't that bad though. You got promoted to Lieutenant and given your own squad." Joshua pointed out to his melancholy friend.

That at least brought a smile to Cameron's face. "Yep, me and Amos were put into the newly formed Lambda Squad and I was given command. It felt weird being a field commander. I mean, sure I gave commands as a Sergeant, but I always had a Lieutenant, Captain, or Major for me to defer to."

Cameron paused before saying, "Lambda was mine for years and I think I did a damn good job given the situation."

"Yeah you did." Joshua said, trying to get Cameron to cheer up. "Just look at what happened to my first squad. Edge Squad had Aziz as its commander, not to mention me and Brock to back him up. Did you ever meet Anthony Wats? Or Dillon and Lance? Good men, all of them. But that didn't stop the disaster that was Operation Backstab from claiming four of our squad."

Cameron froze for a few seconds as if a thought had just struck him. He eventually took another sip of his drink and asked, "Hey, how did Aziz die exactly?"

Now it was Joshua's turn to freeze. Damn it, he was trying to get Cameron to cheer up while he still could. But bringing up the Op where his twin brother died probably did the opposite. As stated before: damn it.

"Well…" Said Joshua, trying to think of a way to weasel out if this predicament. "You've already heard this before."

Cameron raised an eyebrow at this and Joshua knew that Cameron knew that what he just said wasn't true.

"Hell man, he got shot, what more do you need to know?" Joshua felt a bit cornered. He didn't want to tell that story, but a part of him felt sympathy for Cameron and wanted to tell him. Joshua's two younger brothers had died on E-Day after all. He's always wanted to know who they died, them and his parents. But only five percent of the city's population managed to get out and there were so many bodies to sort through when the Locust had moved on, it had taken two months for them to ID all the dead. Out of respect Joshua had not interrogated any of the survivors to see if they knew anything, but that was partly because the chance of them knowing something was microscopic. Yet he could never be sure that if he found someone who knew them shortly before they died that he wouldn't grill that person until they told him everything, no matter how much they didn't want to remember.

Cameron just looked at Joshua, patiently waiting for him to break. Cameron knew he would, Joshua suspected that the cracks must be showing on his face.

"Come on, it's highly classified. You knew I'm not suppose to tell anyone." Joshua could practically see his argument and conviction bleeding to death.

"Then the Chairman can court marshal you."

"Ah, your all heart aren't you?"

"Your story earlier killed all interest anyone had in our conversation. You would just be telling me, and I promise I'm not going to go and tell on you to mom and dad." Cameron's sarcasm wasn't helping, but Joshua had nothing left to shield himself with. But if he has to do something uncomfortable, he could at least get something out of it.

"All right," Joshua began, "I'll tell you about Operation Backstab… But…" Joshua could see that Cameron half expected this. "…But only if you tell me about the mission to the temple."

_The end of Chapter Two: Old War Buddies_

_Next time: Chapter Three: Operation Backstab; Insertion_


End file.
